Eventually, the courtiers at Versailles got too witty for their own good. Tired of our Villagers and their inability to speak with honesty and self reflection? Try this instead. It’s totally possible to love someone you’ve never met, and to be made a romantic again by a single post…

I HAD WANTED in some way to remember Lt. Ehren Watada, as this anniversary of the Iraq Invasion passed us. Remember him? Yeah. Mad respect for this cat. But the media has drowned out that story, it’s slipped away, they lost it…we’ve moved on to Jeremiah Wright and other pressing matters. Here’s to you, sir. You are one of the heroes of this war to me.
You know who was a real Citizen Journalist? Brad Will. I feel trapped into making cute video cookies with my weekly deadline. I want to haul my ass down to the ruins of Katrina or spend weeks getting next to some hidden or ignored truth that the public needs to know about spend time building a story, building rapport, investigating, planning…and really busting out wild with something that matters. This is jingles and I want to do a concept album. I feel I am chasing snacky, quickly rotating headlines. Hey, don’t get me wrong. It’s a way to pay some bills. And I am proud of winning it. But I long to do some good in the face of all the harm being dropped down on so many out there. And I’m more a part of a corporate entertainment empire now than I am in being a useful eye for the public. That’s how I’m feeling lately, at least.  Read more 

Compare and contrast this:

with this:

Why, but why, if we’re all a-twitter about race ’n’ sex ’n’ gender, we don’t all read La Chola?
Here is why:  Read more 

I shouldn’t be here, but I had to look up some stuff and I stumbled across this place and of course got suckered in to leaving a comment. I find the tone, pitch, and language fascinating. This is how “the rest of America” speaks, politically. This is how they think, what they know, don’t know. I’m always struck by how…different we are, when it is made clear to me like this.

Back to the slave pits. Anyway, sharpen your tools. Planting time is here, and there’s work to do. You know what you have to do:  Read more 

This is totally about blogging and how it can help keep you out of trouble, and not about any particular current topic or issue. So, contrast and compare two comments. A Breathless Intertubes Report! That sort of well, uh, didn’t pan out in the actual polls. I’m not picking on JA, I’m just reminding everyone that it’s easy believe the hype, but if there were a simple way to create a “revolution” at the polls it would’ve been done by now.

A different problem here, one that I think really plagues us as progressives. “Life is unfair!” is not the opening line I use to pick up girls or get jobs. And, it distracts our energies from the issue at hand. You make no friends when you essentially lie about ’how bad’ it is for you, and how hard you have to work, when it’s not and you don’t. Or, you do, but so does everyone else. Life is unfair, and thus women and Democrats must stick to pure truth, because even slight misrepresentation comes back to bite us (and never them) on the ass later.

Again I feel like stressing that this is a banana republic now, and when you take developments that way, it all makes a kind of sense. Schlockmeister King introduced me to the saying long ago, “if you can’t afford the game or the zoo, go see a politician!” America is too broke to entertain itself with elephants and circuses these days, so this is what we get instead. Still, real live baboons and actually talented clowns are more interesting, or at least that seem that way to me.

This will be a mostly fact-free touchy-feely sort of post, and although the subject is controversial, I want to make it clear that what I’m asking about has nothing to do with the Man himself, and is only about “the market” that is the progressive/liberal political blogosphere. Which, iirc is about 1% of the size of the Harry Potter Fanpr0n blogosphere, but never mind that…

Anyway, Lambert is trying to make me bust a rib, and linked to this post on ways to make trouble and insult people while losing friends and making new ones. It’s one of several I have seen recently. It’s almost like a new market has been born: how to get 0000s of hits on a brand-new website dedicated to hating the #1 Satan on the interwebs.

I don’t care if he “deserves” it or not; I don’t care if the site is “as good as always” or not. I do care about what seems to be a what, exactly? Splitting? Breaking into divergent parts? Feuding? in the progressive blogosphere. Just as there is great difference between what career DNC folk want and are working for in this primary. Interesting, as this is happening at the same time the progblogosphere seems to be dividing itself into GOS and anti-GOS camps. Which is ironic and funny, because just as Lord Satan isn’t responsible for everything that happens in every corner of the progblogosphere, so too will HRC or BHO be unable to affect the great change in the country that supporters claim and expect. Are “we” once again ahead of the curve, and learning that our heroes have feet of clay, and tools have limits, before the rest of America will?

Anyway, I like Markos and I sometimes find good stuff at his site. I’m not really more invested than that, emotionally, whatever. Sigh, once I was invested in the presidential primary process, emotionally, and more; I wonder if the various camps in the GOS Wars will someday be here too- shrugging and saying, “feh.” And perhaps even learning: there’s more to do out there than crow about an interwebular ranking; activism, even.

I was doing some post-Donna is Victorious! reading something and I’ll paraphrase:

It’s sort of like an alcoholic. He may be losing his wife, job, and he may have liver cancer; but until he deals with his alcoholism meaningfully, he won’t be able to truly fix any of his other problems. So it is with progressives, and our “core” issues like ending the war or bringing economic justice to a rapidly expanding underclass; and The Problem of the campaign finance system.

Unless and until we find a way to “own” candidates and elected officials, we’re all just whistling Dixie. If it’s not going to be Revolution, then it has to be by doing to unpopular things inside the system. Raising money (ick), volunteering (snore), and worst of all, pissing off some of our “friends.” I won’t argue which is the best, because I see no reason why some us can’t work on the “50 State” strategy while other work on the “safe district” or “open seat” approaches.  Read more 

When party invites become more important than ’the story,’ you’ve lost it. We’ll see how extending the magic blanket of Seriousness to “citizen journalists” corrupts some of our voices:

The National Press Club, a 100-year-old professional club for journalists, aims to recruit new online-media members through a partnership with Helium.com, a hub for citizen journalists. The deal is expected to be announced on Tuesday.  Read more 

Example A and the inevitable correction. I could say a lot about this, but instead I’ll just say: I can understand John’s frustration. Technically, he’s not wrong, and we all will pay back the irresponsible “tax cuts,” with interest. And what will the rich get, while we snap and snipe at each other about who is more poor? A bunch, I bet.

John isn’t hurting, he’s got a nice place and some security. But like the poorest, he too can sense how easily the rug could get pulled out from under him. It’s less likely that will happen to him than to say, a homeless Latina veteran. But he’s right to feel anxiety. This post just seems bitchy and self-concerned, and makes him look unaware of how much worse off the plight of those who will get a “tax cut” suffer. More common than you may think, that particular shortcoming and many of our leading “progressive” voices.

The lesson for the movement: make all tax increases on the truly wealthy. There are plenty of them, they can afford it, include corporations and then no better-than-average “centrists” or “liberals” will complain again.

I use Safari, and I have my bookmarks organized into groups. Some are blogs I read “Daily”, some are “Important” but not read every day blogs, “Interesting” and “New (to me)” are some other categories I’ve incorporated into my navigation utility. I’m about to move one from the “Important” category into “the long list of blogs that had a couple of good posts which made me think they were going to positively contribute in the progressive movement but have since shown themselves to be mostly a bunch of assholes.” I haven’t yet, I hope not to. But this? Fuck no. Do something similar again soon, and you’re gone, B-town. The author’s CV, if it’s the same guy. You’ll love this:

Hell, Handbaskets, and Government Lawyers: The Duty of Loyalty and Its Limits, 61 Law & Contemp. Prob. 83 (1998).

Is Bill Clinton Unconstitutional? The Case for President Strom Thurmond, 13 Const. Comm. 217 (1996).

No, wait, it gets better.  Read more 

It’s very “funny,” and worth regular and front page blog posts on “liberal” blogs, to talk about Republican candidates who come in last, next to last, or nearly last. These same candidates get all kinds of free coverage from the media outlets the liberal blogosphere is supposed to “balance.” They also have plenty of money to purchase their own ads, money raised from rich people and big corporations and the avowed enemies of the liberal blogosphere.

It’s not funny, or worth any regular or front page blog posts, to talk about progressive Democratic candidates who finish just behind the “two front runners,” or way behind, or even second in some races. These candidates have little money with which to buy ad time, and are constantly shut out of the primary process by way of lawsuits, media blackouts, and fact-free misrepresentation by the SCLM. They are at the same time closest in policy, voting records, and speech to the “liberal blogosphere.”

Discuss.  Read more 

Snicker. DCOW, but guess who has a crush on PonyBoi? Powerloin!

The folks at First Draft take an unfriendly look at President Bush’s extemporaneous comments in the Ramallah press conference yesterday. With equal parts humor and malice, they slice the comments into bite-sized morsels and provide appropriate headings for them. I think I understand the comments all too well and hope to take another look at his statement when I have a little more time.

UPDATE: I mistook First Draft for Professor Richard Landes’s The Second Draft. because you’re a moron with the reading comprehension skillz of a second grader, you cheeto-snapper. The folks at First Draft are among the sophisticates who refer to President Bush as “Chimpy.” Unfortunately, their take on President Bush’s Ramallah press conference is on target.  Read more 

Please read this comment if you’re new here. And know that I, and We, welcome and want you here. We want you to read, we want you to comment, we want you to disagree, and most of all, we want you to Prove Your Work. Think we’re wrong? Say so, and prove it. We can take it, we love it, and we live for rough, incivil, partisan discourse. Really. No, really.

You can never go wrong here by disagreeing. Or speaking your mind. Or telling us we suck. Just do so with links, and reason, and even emotion. This is a truly progressive blog, in every sense of the word. We don’t censor, or ignore, unless you’re trying to hog this space by trying to sell or push something that has nothing to do with the project at hand. Which of course is: Saving our Constitutional Democracy. One blog post at a time.

Thank you for your attention. We’re not writing here because we want consulting jobs, so don’t worry- we take all our readers “seriously.” Of course, you can hit that blue box over to the top and right, and send LB some cash to support our servers if you’ve got it, as it is true that ’free blogging’ isn’t “free.” In our case, it’s 200/mo. Any help is welcome.

They just fade away and start their own blogs.

Friends don’t let friends start new blogs without a modicum of attention and/or links. Sorry it took me so long, TRex. Keep up the good work.

Seriously, I am so sorry to hear about this. Anyone who has details about his blog, I’d appreciate hearing them.

(CNN) — Authorities have fired an official in central China after city inspectors beat to death a man who filmed their confrontation with villagers, China’s Xinhua news agency reports.

The killing has sparked outrage in China, with thousands expressing outrage in Chinese Internet chat rooms, often the only outlet for public criticism of the government.

The incident has also alarmed advocates of press freedom, who say municipal authorities had no right to attack a man for simply filming them.

Police have detained 24 municipal inspectors and are investigating more than 100 in the death of Wei Wenhua, a 41-year-old construction company executive, Xinhua reported on Friday.

The swift action by officials reflects concerns that the incident could spark larger protests against authorities, whose heavy-handed approach often arouses resentment.

On Monday Wei happened on a confrontation in the central Chinese province of Hubei between city inspectors and villagers protesting over the dumping of waste near their homes.

A scuffle developed when residents tried to prevent trucks from unloading the rubbish, Xinhua said.

When Wei took out his cell phone to record the protest, more than 50 municipal inspectors turned on him, attacking him for five minutes, Xinhua said. Wei was dead on arrival at a Tianmen hospital, the report said.  Read more 

Look, I’m really busy today and don’t have time for this shit, ok newbies/trolls/NSA? People, we let anyone who is a registered user post here because we’re decent, open-minded progressive who want to hear interesting ideas and perspectives. Not because we want you to advertise your own blog or website to our C-list (but AAA-list in Quality!) audience.

Spam posts will be deleted, immediately. And if the the ops people think you can sink this blog that way, it won’t work. Just stop it.

Thoughts from that Matt guy:

In mid-November, Barack Obama laid down some truly remarkable and transformative proposals for the internet, including a strong embrace of net neutrality. Edwards also put out a series of similar policy ideas embracing openness and net neutrality, chiming in during the very imporant 700 megahertz auction of the public airwaves. Clinton, by contrast, laid out a set of proposals written by telecom lobbyists that did not include net neutrality, drawing praise from telecom shill Scott Cleland. Obama has a stable of experienced and savvy progressive telecom talent to appoint to the FCC, whereas Clinton will probably put a top fundraiser, Susan Ness, who is loved by the broadcasters (not a good sign). The FCC is the body that can simply implement net neutrality and open access, reverse media consolidation, and change our communications infrastructure to put power closer to the people.

Interestingly enough, on the right, Mike Huckabee has embraced net neutrality at least in concept, whereas every other Republican has not. First on a conference call with bloggers, and then on a Tech President video, Huckabee analogized the internet to the highway system and decried a two tiered set of controls.  Read more 

SOME OF MY regular readers (I do not, at this point, necessarily refer to the bran-eating amongst us, though they are a well-stirred crew, I’m sure) remember the day back in August I casually (you should have seen me, I was sipping a mint julep as I typed) posted on the MTV Choose or Lose ’08 Vlogger competition.  Read more 

El Gato is right to make fun of this guy’s combover as well as his pathetic ’reasoning.’ Christ, just look at the title:

Unfettered ’citizen journalism’ too risky

My God! Somebody think of the children!!

Supporters of “citizen journalism” argue it provides independent, accurate, reliable information that the traditional media don’t provide. While it has its place, the reality is it really isn’t journalism at all, and it opens up information flow to the strong probability of fraud and abuse. The news industry should find some way to monitor and regulate this new trend.  Read more 

Pathetic. You can leave some choice comments if you’d like, and let this wanker feel a little blogswarm wrath. Avedon already skewered him:

Avedon wrote:
Some bloggers are doing excellent, real, journalism. They do original reporting, make the phone calls, even put in some leg-work. They’re reporters, pure and simple.

Some bloggers do expert analysis when the subject matter is in our own field of expertise. This will usually be superior to what’s in the major newspapers.

The rest of us know that most of what we’re doing is not reporting. A lot of it is commentary, and no worse than anything you’d find on the op-ed pages of the major newspapers. (I mean, how much worse could you be than Krauthammer?)

And some of us are basically creating our own table of contents - links to articles elsewhere that might interest our readers.

And occasionally, even those of us who don’t usually do reporting or specialist analysis do some local reporting, or do some expert analysis in our own field.

And quite a lot of it is good and enhances our readers’ understanding of what’s going on - and this is vital in a real democracy.

Some of it is not so good, but once you’ve read The Washington Post, you’re used to seeing a mix of very good and very bad journalism.  Read more 

Don’t you just love it when Republicans speak of death, destruction, and destitution as a “win-win” situation? They’re so good at it, it just comes naturally to them. The important point of the MJ story:

That’s a tradition that goes back to the origins of the nation. The founding fathers saw the press as the lifeblood of democracy—only informed voters could compose a true democracy, they believed—and thus created a postal system that gave favorable rates to small periodicals. (George Washington actually supported mailing newspapers for free.) For 200 years, small periodicals and journals of opinion were given special treatment.

The 2007 rate hikes, which went into effect this summer, changed that. Now, periodicals are still expected to cover attributable costs and pay no overhead, but because the cost of delivering mail has gone up, rates within the class have gone up as well. In advance of the rate hike, the Postal Service submitted a proposal to the Postal Regulatory Commission that would have raised the rates in the class more or less evenly. The PRC rejected the proposal in favor of a rate package put forward by Time Warner that, unsurprisingly, hands small periodicals much steeper rate hikes than their large counterparts.  Read more 

Awards for blogs are generally silly things, and I don’t pay much attention to them. For the same reason as I don’t pay attention to online polling. I’m just a little too familiar with who is deeply invested (“you can vote once every 24hrs!”) in such things, who constructs them, and how they are used, to think them worthy of serious consideration. Anway, it warms my heart to find some purity left in the blogosphere, and I think the woman has a point. 49 categories, but not one specifically for da wimmin? That’s a head-scratcher.

Do you note the glaring omission of feminist blogs or a “Feminist Blogs” category? Pandagon, Feministing, and Shakesville were nominated under “Liberal Blogs” (and the winner was a white male liberal blogger, of course). There is a “GLBT” category which includes Pam’s House Blend (and the winner was Joe My God, a white gay male blogger, natch). Not only is a “feminist” category glaringly omitted, the nominees and winners are overwhelmingly white and male. Surprise.

Feminism, however, does not seem to exist in its own right for these guys. And, I guess, really, that’s about right. If a whole lot of people had their way — including many self-identified feminists– feminism would be subsumed, erased, hidden by these penultimately male categories, i.e., “liberal” and “GLBT”.  Read more 

OK, maybe not here exactly, but still. Because you know, like we do, where all the fresh, exciting talent really is:

According to the Arketi Group 2007 Web Watch Survey, 84 percent of journalists say they would or already have used blogs as a primary or secondary source for articles. 100% of those (journalists) surveyed say they rely on the Internet to help get their job done. One-quarter of journalists say blogs make their job easier, while 18 percent say instant messaging makes their job easier.

The “primary” source part amuses me. Having done some Original Reporting and writing, I’ve always been offended by the notion that only those with Village membership are able to produce quality material. That’s so obviously untrue, and a big part of our problem (that so many still believe that). Anyway, I wonder who reads whom, and just how many stories in the SCLM originate in the blogosphere. I’ve always known it was “some,” but I guess now I should wonder if it’s not “most.”